Device for charging internal-combustion engines



L. ATWOOD. DEVICE FOR CHARGING INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT-16.1916;

Patented May 30, 1922.

UNITE-D v sures PATENT 'Q FI LEONARD ATWOOD, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGN'OR TO ALCBER'I LARD, 0F ENGLEWOOD, NEW JERSEY.

GIL- DEVICE FOR CHARGING INTERNAL-COMBUSTION ENGINES.

To all to]! am it may concern i Be it known that I, LEONARD A'rwoon, citizen of the United States of America,- and a resident of Boston, county of Suffolk, State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in De-' vices for Charging Internal-Combustion Engines, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to generators for converting raw liquid fuel, .such as crude oil, distillate, kerosene and similar heavy oils into a combustible gas for use in internal combustion engines. It pertains particularly to gasgenerators, retorts or raw fuel gasifying devices which are preferably attached to the multiple cylinder internal combustion engines described in my application for Let.

' ters Patent of the United States, filed August 10, 1916 under Serial Number 114,093. These engines may for instance be used to great advantage in submarine boats and where engines of large power are required. Thenovel raw fuel gasifying retortsare preferably provided near to'and in'an exhaust bonnet adjoining the cylinders of the engine so arranged that the retorts and cylinders absorb heat from the passing out hot exhaust gases. -Means are provided adjoin- 7 ing the raw fuel gasifying retorts for regulating from the outside the heat from these gases while acting on the gasifying retorts.

he novel multiple cylinder engine has no suction stroke to feed it, but is charged by means being under sufiicient pressure -to cause the fuel charge in gaseous form to enter all the cylinders in due time, as governed by the induction valves, A small air pump is provided for supplying the required pressure to these means for charging the engine This 'pum' is driven by the engine or it may be starteg or driven by an electric motor if desirable. i

In order .to avoid complicated. and costly irfechanism. for priming the engine gasoline vapors from a small gasoline reservoir are introduced into the cylinders for starting and running the. engine until raw fuel has been gasifield. It is evident that the engine then may berun by raw fuel in gaseous form or it may be run by such gas, with an addition of gasoline vapors that may be introduced in various percentages or it may be run by gasothe construction of the engine with the raw fuel gasifying retorts therein employed is very simple and liability to repairs greatly lessened. Furthermore a great saving is reflected-particularly when the engine, after pr1m1ng,1s run bygaseous fuel derived from crude oils and-the like.

In order to render the invention entirely clear reference is had to the accompanying drawing in which 1 represents in elevation, mostly in sectlon, amultiple cylinder internal combustion engine with the novel crude oil gasify- 111g mechanism applied thereto.

Specificationof Letters Patent; -.Patented luay 30, 1922 Application filed September 16, 1916. "Serial No. 120,457. I

sure into a reservoir containing water and Fig. 2 illustrates in longitudinal section I an inspirato-r or spray device.

Similar characters of reference denote like parts in all the figures.

The engines to which the novel raw fuel gaslfylng retorts are preferably applied comprise essentially the cylinders of which one is shown in Fig. 1 and designated by the numeral 1. Within each cylinder there is a double piston 2,. 3, centrally reduced in diameter and each cylinder has central slots 4 one on each. side. Two adjoining double pistons are connected by a wrist pin 5 and the connecting rod 6 .is secured to the exposed middleportion of the wrist pin for moving the pistons which is rendered possible. by the central slots of the cylinders- Each cylinder is provided with the fuel inlet ports-7, 8, which communicate with the induction valves 9,10,- having valve rods 11, 12, operated by means of a valve lifter 13. The valve lifter is operated by a crank 14 mounted upon the'crank shaft 15. r The induction valves 9 and 10 communicate with a pipe 16 which; connects With the fuel inlet pipe 17. Exhaust ports 18 and 19 are pro vided in the cylinder as shown. Each cylin- (lI'-l'lafVlI1-g.tWO explosion zones, one at each end, necessarilyis provided with two spark pump is driven by the engine as shown in Fig. 1 or it may be, driven by another suitable source of power such as an electric motor. In the drawing the pump connection is effected by means of chain wheels 25, 26, of which one is mounted on the main shaft 27 and one on the pump and a chain 28 con-' In order to preventnects the chain wheels. any over pressure the air pump is provided with a safety valve 29. This pressure regulating valve 29 is adjustable and may be adjusted to carry from two pounds to sixty pounds to the square inch. From the air pum a pipe 30 leads down into an air tank 31 w iich thus is charged to contain the desired air pressure. The compressed air tank 31 may form an integral part of the engine bed and be directly cast thereon or it may be 30 suitably attached to the engine bed or mounted convenient thereto. In this way the air tank does not occupy any valuable space and when cast to the engine bed it is not liable to leak. Compressed air from this. tank may serve to convey lubrication to the various working parts of the engine. From the air tank a pipe 32 provided with a. regulating valve 33 leads up to an inspirator casing 34 which is connected tojthe fuel inlet pipe 17. Within the inspirator casing 34 and in the outer end portion of the pipe 17 the spray device or inspirator is mounted which is of substantially the construction shown in Fig.

2. The air pipe 32 supplies air to the inspirator and gasoline is introduced from the auxiliary gasoline reservoir 35 mounted adjoining to the inspirator; The gasoline is.

supplied. to the small reservoir from the gasoline tank 36 by means of the pipe 37 provided with a valve 38 forregulating the flow of this fluid. The gasoline tank re-' ceives air pressure from theair tank through the pipe 39. The quantity of air entering the gasoline tank is regulated by the valve 40. From the small'gasoline reservoir the gasoline passes through the pipe 41 into the inspirator andits nozzle 42 which is regulated by the needle valve 43. Thus the qua I tity of air and gasoline may be regulated y 0 the described valves and the air drawing the gasoline along in the inspirator introduces the same into the fuel pipe 16 in form of .:1; fine spray of vapor. From the pipe 16 the fuel charge passes through the induction valves into the cylinders. Thus the engine water is primed by a mixture of gasoline vapor and a1r.-

\Vhen the engine hasbeen primed and is running the hot exhaust gases pass throu h the exhaust ports 18, 19, and heat the cyllnders and the raw fuel gasifying retorts mounted in close proximity thereto. The retorts are fed from the raw fuel tank 44. A..\ pipe 45 connects the compressed air, tank 31 with the raw oil tank and a valve 46 is pro- 7 5 vided in this pipe for regulating the quantity of compressed air entering the raw oil tank. From this .tank a pipe 47 provided with a regulating valvek48 leads up into a reservoir 49 containing water 50 and oil 51.,

being supplied to the reservoir through a suitable pipe 50 p As shown in Fig. 1 the exhaust bonnet 22 reaches down beyond the water and oil reservoir 49. A relatively wide ipe '52-connects with the bottom portion of t e exhaust bonnet and rises vertically up passing centrally through the entire reservoir 49 and beyond the same. This pipe 52 then connects with the exhaust pipe 23 that leads into the atmosphere. By means of this pipe within the reservoir 49 heat from the passing out combustion gases is applied to the water and oil in the reservoir. The water is transformed'into steam which carries along oil vapor. Superheating of the steam and oil vapors may be effected by regulating the flow of the hot exhaust gases by means to be described hereinafter. From the reservoir 49 the steam and oil vapors pass through the 109 pipe 53 which is provided with a valve 54 for regulating the flow of the steam. and oil. vapors. The pipe 53 connects with a hori-' zontal top pipe 55 and this pipe connects, at the other side of the engine, with a doWnward pipe 56 which communicates with the induction valves 9 and 10. In this manner steam and oilvapor mixed with air may be introduced successively into the cylinders as governed by the induction valves. steam and oil vapors act as "a scavenger in the cylinders and keep all valves, pipes and the spark plugs in a clean condition and lubricate the same continuously. If desired gasoline vapor may at'the same time be introduced into the cylinders so that there is a compound fuel composed of gasoline vapor, steam and crude oil vapor, and air, all being mixed simultaneously. v

To superheat the steam and oil vapors from the reservoir 49 they may be prevented from passing into the pipe 55 by closing the valve 54. These vapors may be conducted through .the pipe 57 when the valve 58 is opened. tort 59 receives the raw fuel oil vapors at the top and is provided with interior ribs 60, 61, arranged in alternate-order whereby a serpentine channel is created for a long passageof the raw oil vapors. In order to 130 The 110 I The superheating gasifying reregulate the heat from the exhaust gases which acts on the retorts heat deflectors 62, 63, are provided in the exhaust bonnet 22. These heat regulating deflectors are mounted each on a pin-64, 65, which extends through the wall. of the exhaust bonnet so that each may be regulated from the outside. In the superheating retort 59 the crude 011 vapor is more intensely gasified and the hot o1l vapors pass through a pipe 66 connect ng with the bottom portion'of the superheatmg retort. The pipe 66 connects with the horizontal pipe 55 and the crude oil vapors then pass down thepipe 56 which connects with the inductionvalves. The crude oil vapors mixed with air then pass into the cylinders in successive order as governed by the induction valves. The fuel charge composedof steam and crude oil vapor is prevented from reaching a temperature beyond the flash point of the oil by regulating the heat acting on the superheating retort by means of the heat deflectors. It is evident that the vaporized crude oil fuel charge may also be mixed with a fuel charge composed of gaso line vapor which may be introduced in various percentages, as hereinbefore described. Any impurities collecting in the bottom portion of the retort 59 may be extracted therefrom through the sludge pipe 67 indicated in dotted lines in Fig. 1.

By priming the engine with a fuel mixture of compressed air-and gasoline vapor created by the pressure in the air tank it is 7 not necessary to use a hot torch or a high pressure pumping plant to start the engine.

The cylinder receives its fuel charge upon and near the commencement of the compression stroke, the charge having first been heated as herein described, will be in a condition to ignite just as the piston has reached the end of the compression stroke and when the engine is running at high pistonspeed the ignition may} be advanced so that expansion may take place and form a gaseous cushion to overcomeinertia, combusting the charge at a point in the cranks orbit where the expansion will be of the greatest value.

When charging the retorts there is practically no air present in the retorts and the air required to produce a combustible mixture is introduced through the inspirator from the compressed air tank. .Sufiicient.

pressure is attained to cause the mixture to pass through the induction valves into the combustion cylinders. Thus the cylinders are charged with a combustible mixture without the aid of the engine pistons. In other words, when the pistons have reached the proper point to adapt the cylinders to receive the fuel charge and the induction valves are then opened, the pressure of the fuel from the gas generator will charge'the engine. The engine is set in motion by hand or by an electric selfstarter of. the reversible type, and when sufiiciently heated the gas gasoline as a primer can be dis-' bustion engine comprising a reservoir adapted for receiving and containing ,liquid fuel and water, means for unitedly heating the liquid fuel and water under pressure, and means for delivering the resultant vapors to the engine.

2. A device for charging an internal combustion engine comp-rising a vertically elon ated reservoir adapted for receiving liquid uel and water, the liquid fuel being 'de-- livered to the lower part of the reservoir, a heating means extending vertically through the reservoir, and means for delivering the resultant vapors under pressure to the enine. g 3. A device for charging an. internal combustion engine with gaseous fuel comprising means for transforming water and crude oil into vapors'by ebullition, a conduit for the passage'of these vapors, means for-superheating the gasified products, a conduit forconducting the superheated vapors into the fuel charging devices of the engine, andadjustable means creating pressure for foreing the crude oil into the vapor producing means and aiding in forcing out the said vapors,

4. A device for charging an internal combustion engine comprising a reservoir for water and crude oil, heating means passing through the same adapted to transform the water and oil into vapor by vebullition, a

conduit for the passage of these vapors, a" retort for superheating the vapors, a conduit for conducting the superheated vapors into the fuel charging devices of the engine, and adjustable means creating pressure for forcing the crude oil into the vapor producing means and aiding/in forcing out the said vapors. v

5. A device for charging an internal combustion engine comprising a reservoir for water'and crude oil, a pipe passihg through bustion engine comprislng a reservoir for water and-crude oil, a pipe passing through the reservoir applying the heat of the exhaust gases and transforming the w ater and oil into vapor by ebullition, means for regulating the flow of the hot exhaust gases, a conduit for the passage of the vapors, a retort for superheating the vapors, a conduitgases of the engine to the retort and reservoir composed essentially of an exhaust bonnet in which the retort is mounted, an exhaust pipe onthe bonnet, heat regulating deflectors therein adapted 'to be operated from the outside, and a heating pipe I connected with the bonnet, passing through the reservoir and issuinginto the exhaust pipe of the bonnet.

8. A device for charging an internal coinbustion engine comprising a reservoir for crude oil and water,'a superheating retort, ribs therein arranged in alternate order, an exhaust bonnet on the cylinder around the retort, heat regulating deflectors in the honnet, an exhaust tube therein, a crude oil tank with means for applying variable air pressurethereto connecting with the reservoir,

- a pipe leading from the reservoir to the retort, means for applying the heat of the exhaust gases to the retort and reservoir, a conduit for passing the vapors to the fuel charging devices of the engine, and means for mixing air with the vapors before entering said charging devices;

9. A device for charging an internal combustron engine comprising means for creating variable air pressure, a fuel oil tank con nected thereto, a fuel oil and water reservoir in connection with the tank, a superheating retort in connection with the reservoir, adjustable means adapted to apply the heat of the exhaust gases to the retort and reservoir, a conduit from the retort to the fuel charging devices, and means for mixing air from the variable air pressure means with the'vapors.

, 10. A device for charging an internal combustion engine comprising means for creating variable air pressure, a crude oil tank connected thereto, .a crude oil and water reservoir in connection with the tank, a

superheating retort in connection with the reservoir, adjustable means adapted to apply the heat ofthe exhaust gases to the retort and reservoir, a conduit from the retort to the fuel charging devices, and means-for mixing a spray of gasoline and air'with these vapors actuated by the means for creating variable air pressure.

11. A device for 1 charging 'an internal combustion engine comprising means for creating variable air pressure, a pipe thereon with adjusting valve, fuel vapor produc ing devices in connection with the pipe, means for conducting the fuel vapors to the charging devices of the engine, a second pipe with regulating valve on the means for creating air pressure, an adjustable gasoline spray device in connection with said pipe, and means for supplying gasoline tothe spray device also actuated by the means for creating variable air pressure.

Signed atmton, Mass, this 14 day of September, 1916.

- LEONARD ATWOOD.

Witnesses:

' E. M. PEARCE,

F; H. BLAOKWELL. 

